






WILLIAM T. BRANTLY'S THANKS^IVlRfi SfRMON. ' 

CORRECTED BY THE AUTHOR FOR rUlJMCATION IN PAMPHLET. /^ 

OUR MTMAL TROUBLES. ( 



B79 A THANKSGIVING SERMON. 

Copy 1 





DELIVERED IX THE 



i^iPiST B^^i^TiST a:E3:xj:EiCH:, 



1/ 



HEFOBE THE 



First and the Tabernacle Baptist Congregations of Philadelphia, 



ON THURSDAY MORKISG, KOV. 29, 1860. 



I BY WILLIAM T. BRANTLY, \ 

MINISTER OF THE TABERNACLE BAPTIST CHURCH. 



\ 



(j PHILADELPHIA: 

j) T. B. PETERSON & BROTHERS, 306 CHESTNUT STREET. 






) 



(tV 



MX ml 



mmmm. 



A THANKSGIVING SERMON. 



DELIVERKD IN THE 



FIIRST B^^I^TIST CHCXJX^CIBI, 



BEFORE THE 



First and tlie Tabernacle Baptist Congregations of Philadelphia, 



OX THURSDAY MORNING, NOV. 29, 18G0. 



BY WILLIAM T. "BRANTLY, 

MINISTER OF THE TABERNACLE BAPTIST CHCJRCn. 




PHILADELPHIA: 

T. B. PETKRSON & BROTHERS, 
No. 306 Chestnut Street. 
^■^ 1860. 



^^0 



•B^c| 



Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1860, 

BY T. B. PETERSON & BROTHERS, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in 
and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 

Philadelphia, November 30th, 18G0. 

Rev. Wjr. T. Bkaxtlt, D.D. 
Kev. axd Dear Sir : 

The sentiments of your discourse, delivered on Thanksgiving Day, the 
29th inst., in the First Baptist Church of this City, seem to us to be 
eminently judicious. Believing that the wider circulation of this Dis- 
course, at the present juncture of our National affairs, will contribute to 
allay sectional excitement, to restore harmony, and to re-establish con- 
fidence in the value and perpetuity of The Uniox, we respectfully ask a 
copy for publication. 

We are Dear Sir very sincerely yours. 



Wm. S. Haxsell, 
Tnos. Wattsox, 
J>"0. 0. James, 
JoHX C. Davis, 
Washixgtox Butcher, 

0/ the First Baptist Congregation. 



Jko. W. Sexton, 
Levi Kxowles, 
Park Cassady, 
Hexry Croskey, 
Wm. L. Maddock, 

0/ the Tabernacle Baptist Congregation. 



REPLY. 

Philadelphia, November 30t/i, 1860. 
Gextlemex : 

The discourse which you reqiiest was hastily prepared, the day heforc 
Thanks'giving, without the remotest reference to publication. I could 
wish it were more worthy of preservation in the permanent form in which 
your pai'tiality seeks to embody it. Meagre and imperfect, as I feel it to 
be, I am not at liberty to withhold it, if, in the judgment even of partial 
friends, it may contribute to the peace of the Country. 

Very truly your friend and servant, 

W. T. Bkantly. 

To Messrs. Hansell, Wattson, James. Davis, Butcher, Sexton, Knowles, 
Cassady, Croskey, and Maddock. 



OUR NATIONAL TROUBLES. 



A THANKSGIVING SERMON. 



ECCLESIASTES, vii., 14. 



Ix THE DAY OF PROSPERITY BE JOYFUL, BUT IX THE DAY OF ADYERSITY 

CONSIDER : God also hath set the one oyer against the other, 

TO THE END THAT MAN SHOULD FIND NOTHING AFTER HI.M, 

The history of every man who completes the ordi- 
nary term of human existence, or any considerable 
portion of it, supplies a fresh confirmation of the 
trite remark, that life is a checkered scene. Days of 
prosperity and days of adversity are constantly inter- 
mingled. It is true, that in the history of most of us, 
the occasions of gratitude are far more numerous than 
those of sorrow. Were we to look over the past 
to-day, and to strike the balance between our times 
of sickness and those of health, — times when we 
were pinched with want and those in which we had 
enough and to spare ; between the number of our 
friends and the number of our enemies ; between 



O OUR NATIONAL TROUBLES. 

those things which we must call mercies and those 
which we must regard as judgments; — the result 
would compel us all to say, we have abundant cause 
for responding to the proclamation of the Chief 
Magistrate of the Commonwealth, which summons 
us to give thanks to-day. There is not one of us but 
would feel constrained, in vieAv of the past, to ask, 
" What shall I render unto the Lord for all his bene- 
fits toward me'?" 

We have not been without our days of adversity — 
times, it may be, when our sky was so utterly over- • • 

cast that there was not even light enough to produce 
the bow of hope to span our pathway. Whether 
this adversity came in the shape of conviction for sin, 
when the Holy Spirit taught you that you were in 
the gall of bitterness, whilst as yet He furnished no 
relief; or in the form of disappointments and ' 

reverses, when you were obliged to witness the 
failure of enterprises on which you had made very 
sanguine calculations ; or in the distress of those 
with whom you were in the closest sympathy ; or in 
the calumny which sought to impeach your motives 
and blacken your reputation ; or in the bereavement 
of some object very dear to your hearts — perhaps a 
child who seemed to be a part of your own existence 
— or a parent tenderly beloved — or a companion on 
whose strong arm you had been accustomed to lean 
in the pilgrimage of life ; — whatever the circum 



OUR NATIONAL TROUBLES. » 

stances under which the calamity occurred, you were 
obliged to feel that it was a day of adversity. If in 
this day }ou have paused to consider the lesson 
which it Avas so well fitted to supply, you have 
already perceived that what seemed to be only trou- 
ble, was the Providence of a Father who chastens 
whom He loves, or your faith assures you that such 
will be the discovery when the great Interpreter 
makes all things plain to the comprehension of those 
who put their trust in him. 

These days of adversity, which we find in the lives 
of individuals, must be looked for in the history of 
nations and of states. For as these are but the 
aggregates of individuals, it is reasonable to expect 
in the whole those alternations of sunshine and of 
shade which are found in every part. No nations, 
however prosperous, have been without their times 
of trial ; and whilst in some instances these trials 
have resulted in their ruin, in others they appear to 
have imparted strength for more energetic life. 
"When the Persian monarchy rose under Cyrus, and 
achieved an empire wider and more powerful than 
the world had ever known before, men began to think 
that the government was at last organized which 
would be indestructible. But the jubilee of triumph 
was yet fresh upon the tongue when its integrity was 
threatened from within and without. In a short 
time the glory of Cyrus pales before the more splen- 



10 OUR NATIONAL TROUBLES. 

did exploits of Alexander ; and the Macedonian 
monarch wielded over peoples and territories a power 
which eclipsed utterly the dominion of all who had 
preceded him. Never, it was believed, could Icha- 
bod be written over so powerfid a throne. But 
internal dissensions, fomented by the fierce quarrels 
of ambitious leaders, induced divisions which made 
the country an easy prey to invaders, and destroyed 
all the work of the warrior who had " conquered the 
world." As we descend the stream of time, we find 
at length an empire which, it Avould seem, could 
never be overthrown. With the most skilful gene- 
rals in the field, and men distinguished for their 
eloquence, patriotism and probity in her councils ; 
harmonious at home, and no enemies to dread from 
abroad ; surely, we are ready to conclude, this is a 
consolidation which must be enduring. As succes- 
sive centuries roll on, and the mistress of the world 
strengthens her grasp on the nations whom her eagles 
overshadow, and the conservative element of Christi- 
anity begins to take efiect among her citizens, and to 
adorn the diadem of the Caesars, we are confirmed in 
the conviction that the government has at last been 
inaugurated which is destined to know no decay 
whilst earthly kingdoms remain. But the history of 
the decline and fall of the Roman Empire has been 
written. 

National calamities do not of necessity, however, 



OUR NATIONAL TROUBLES. 11 

involve national ruin. In the history of States as of 
persons, days of adversity are often succeeded by the 
most prosperous periods. How strikingly is this 
illustrated in the annals of the two most powerful 
governments of the old world, at the present day. I 
speak of England and France. They have known 
times in which it seemed that their national exis- 
tence must be destroyed, and the historian compelled 
to do for them, what had been done for their illustri- 
ous predecessors. But hitherto, they have emerged 
triumphantly from the ruin which seemed inevitable. 
Sixty years ago, France was convulsed with a revolu- 
tion so fierce, that at one time it was judged impos- 
sible for the nation to survive its terrible throes. 
Says an eye-witness of the scene, " IMultiplied cases 
of suicide ; prisons crowded with innocent persons ; 
permanent guillotines ; perjuries of all classes ; parental 
authority set at defiance ; debauchery encouraged by 
law; thousands of divorces granted in one year in the 
single city of Paris; whilst there prevailed through- 
out the country whatever is most obscene in vice, or 
dreadful in ferocity." It was a day of adversity for 
that people. But in a few years, the country which 
appeared to be on the brink of ruin, has risen to the 
very summit of political prosperity. Her victorious 
emperor has made her name formidable in all Europe. 
Kings it would seem kept their thrones by his sufter- 
ance, whilst he was the great arbiter of disputes. 



12 OUR NATIONAL TROUBLES. 

At one time men were predicting that the French 
authority would be established over the whole conti- 
nent, and the sway of Napoleon, become co-extensive 
with the authority of the most illustrious of the 
Ciiesars. But in a few short months after the pro- 
phecy, the sceptre was wrested from the grasp of the 
conqueror, and so complete was the humiliation of 
the proud empire, that she was almost thrown upon 
the indulgence of her enemies, for her independent 
national existence. Rising again from her temporary 
degradation, she has continued to ascend amid all her 
vicissitudes, until to-day she holds an eminence which 
makes her conspicuous among the powers of the 
earth. If we look to England, we shall discover that 
with all her greatness, she has not been without her 
days of adversity. She has suffered disastrous de- 
feats by land and sea ; her kings have been beheaded, 
or exiled or confined in dungeons ; civil wars have 
arrayed her citizens against each other, in the most 
deadly strife, and revolutions have threatened her 
with dismemberment and ruin. Was it not a time 
of adversity with her, when eighty-four years ago, her 
oppressed subjects in this country rose up in their 
might, and after years of fighting, tore from her crown 
these fair western possessions, confessedly the brightest 
jewel which ever glittered in her diadem. Scarcely six 
months have passed away, since all England was trem- 
bling under the dread of an assault from her ally of the 



OUR NATIONAL TROUBLES. 13 

Crimea. Her Prime Minister, was calling for mili- 
tary appropriations. The people were busy organiz- 
ing troops, and constructing defences. They knew 
not at what moment the invasion would come. It 
was a time of gloom — a day of adversity. Such was 
the consternation which prevailed, that the Emperor, 
from whom the assault was apprehended, felt called 
upon to allay, by an official disclaimer, the disquie- 
tudes of his English friends. But, this, like other 
days of adversity, passed away, and amidst her varying 
fortunes, England has been advancing from strength 
to strength, until now, "the sun never sets on her 
possessions, and her morning drum-beat is heard 
around the world." 

Nations, however powerful and prosperous they 
may subsequently become, cannot expect to escape 
their time of trial. We may not look for exemption 
from this common lot. We have had our sunshine 
of prosperity. It has been most marked and extra- 
ordinary. As we look over tlie past we are ready to 
say with the sacre'd historian, when speaking of God's 
dealings with another people, " He hath not dealt so 
with any nation ; as for his judgments, they have not 
known them." Our Union has been to us all a 
" copious fountain of individual, social and national 
happiness." But we are not so free from sins, indi- 
vidual and national ; our country is not so eminent 
for virtue and piety that we can hope to escape the 



14 OUR NATIONAL TROUBLES. 

troubles which have hitherto marked the history of 
man under all governments. Days of adversity will 
come. I do but give utterance to what every person 
of ordinary discernment must perceive, when I say 
that such times are actually upon us. Men of all 
creeds and of all parties in all sections of the country, 
however widely they may differ either as to the cause 
or the remedy, must recognize the present as a day of 
adversity. It was only a few evenings ago that the 
most influential politician of the State of New York, 
addressing a company who had come to congratulate 
him on the result of the recent election, was con- 
strained to say among other things : " Gentlemen, our 
political atmosphere is filled with dark and murky 
clouds." A prominent statesman* of New Hamp- 
shire writes that " men are now compelled to open 
their eyes upon a full view of the nearness and mag- 
nitude of impending calamities." 

If we turn toward the South, there is an occasional 
ray of light, as we hear the voice of her conservative 
patriots, but the gloom preponderates fearfully. One 
State, I fear, has already dissolved her connection 
with the government, so far as the intention of her 
citizens can do it ; and in a few days, what has 
already been done in spirit, may be executed in united 
and solemn action. Other States are calling their 
conventions ; the advocates of immediate and uncon- 

* Ex President Pierce. 



OUR NATIONAL TROUBLES. 15 

ditional secession are crying with their too eloquent 
tongues, " give us the sword ;" hundreds of thousands 
of dollars are already appropriated for the purchase 
of death-dealing weapons ; the people everywhere are 
thoroughly aroused and all are acting as if they 
believed that some fearful crisis was at hand. 
Whether a revolution occurs or not, it is certain that 
there are the prognostics of trouble. As I look on, 
I am filled with the most painful apprehensions. I 
am distressed at the mere possibility of the destruc- 
tion of a country around which there cluster so 
many treasured memories and fond anticipations. I 
am not indeed without hope. I trust that there are 
intelligence and patriotism and piety enough in the 
sections which now seem to be so fiercely arrayed 
against each other to ride out the storm. I have not 
yet been able to beheve that the merciful Providence 
which has given to this country so many men eminent 
in the field and in the cabinet, which has watched 
over our interests at a time when they seemed to be 
desperate, and which in subsequent periods has 
brought us safely through other crises which were 
alarming, will now abandon us to dismemberment 
and ruin. My hope and prayer are that existing 
troubles may result in such explanations and pledges 
as will cement in a firmer bond those who arc already 
united by many strong and sacred ties. My hope 
and prayer are that when this angry tempest subsides, 



16 OUR NATIONAL TROUBLES. 

it will leave the sky all the more hright : exhibiting 
not a lone star here, and there, and yonder, twinkling 
in the firmament with their feeble and isolated light, 
hut onr national constellation, without one star 
eclipsed, shining with a new splendor after the tem- 
porary obscuration through which it has passed. 

But passing these general observations, I proceed 
to mention two or three of the causes which in my 
view have contributed to our present troubles. Our 
national troubles are doubtless due to two classes of 
causes, the moral and the political. The latter belong 
to the domain of the politician, and may not be 
discussed in a place which is sacred to other themes. 
No circumstances can justify the introduction of mere 
party politics into the pulpit. In the present case, I 
am aware, that the different causes to which I have 
referred, unless very sharply defined, must be con- 
founded with each other. I shall confine myself to 
those which affect the moral aspect of tlie question ; 
and your time allows me to do little more than advert 
to two or three of the more obvious considerations. 

I. One cause of our present adversity is found in 
the national idokdnj to which we have been addicted. 
Love of country, 1 am aware, is a duty not merely 
of patriotism, but of religion. Many have insisted, 
and very wisely too, on cherishing this as a bond of 
union. When the love of country dies out, the 



OUR NATIONAL TROUBLES. IT 

country will die out with it. "It is sweet and 
glorious," said the Roman, " to die for one's coun- 
try;" and our Christianity has fully endorsed this 
pagan sentiment. We honor the patriots who shed 
their blood in achieving our independence ; we love 
to speak of their noble deeds to our children: the 
memory of their patriotism can never perish. At 
the same time, a devotion which is allowable, and 
even dutiful, when restrained within proper bounds, 
becomes mischievous when immoderate and exces- 
sive. " Husbands love your wives," is an apostolic 
command, but when affection erects the wife into 
an idol, which takes that place in the heart which 
the Creator claims for himself, it is pernicious and 
sinful, and exposes him who is guilty to the judg- 
ments of Heaven. If I mistake not, we have been 
disposed to love our country with an undue affec- 
tion. Never, I apprehend, did there exist a gov- 
ernment on earth, embracing a population of so 
many millions of people, with such heterogeneous 
tastes and pursuits, where contentment and unani- 
mity have so generally prevailed. With the excep- 
tion of a very few extreme men in the North, who 
have openly and unblushingly denounced the consti- 
tution of their country as a covenant with death 
and a league with hell, together with a very small 
company in the South, who have for many years 
crloried in the unpatriotic name of Disunionists per 



18 OUR NATIONAL TROUBLES. 

se, the great mass of the people have been devotedly 
attached to the Union of the States. 

We have eulogized the Union until we have 
begun to think that it was some deity worthy of 
our homage. We have thought that there was 
such magic in that word " Union," that no assault 
made upon it could be successful. Our poets have 
sung praises to the Union in their most glowing 
numbers ; our orators have employed their best 
rhetoric in painting its glories; and our philoso- 
phers have written volumes in exhibition of its 
excellencies. We have loved to unfurl the stars 
and the stripes from our private dwellings, as well 
as from our public buildings ; to display them in 
the valley and on the mountain-top ; and to flaunt 
them in our most crowded thoroughfares, so that 
the most inattentive passer-by must see them. Our 
ships, as they plow the seas of the world, fling 
our national emblem to the breeze from their most 
conspicuous masts. Our children use miniature 
flags for their toys. On our public holidays, our 
locomotives and our horses, as they drag their 
living freight through street and country, are 
adorned with the Star-Spangled Banner. If any 
one had asked one of those Japanese who visited 
our city recently, what was the religion of the 
American people, had he no other means of form- 
ing an opinion than from what he observed whilst 



OUR NATIONAL TROUBLES. 19 

in the country, he must have said they worship 
a deity represented by the stars and the stripes. 
For wherever they went these met their eye ; 
when they paused at their hotels, this was always a 
prominent object, and when they journeyed this was 
always a part of the company. They knew nothing 
of any other object of worship. They were carefully 
restrained from visiting our sanctuaries, or reading 
our bibles, or from hearing anything by which they 
could conjecture that the Americans did not wor- 
ship a God who was visible through the omni- 
present banner. Our spread-eagle rhetoricians have 
described the American eagle perched on the high- 
est peak of the Western mountains, with one wing 
touching the Atlantic and the other the Pacific 
waters, as if about to take the whole North Ameri- 
can continent under his shadow. In this general 
jubilee we have hardly allowed ourselves to think 
that the wing of our national bird could ever droop, 
or that our " glorious banner " could be superseded 
by another ensign. May not God, in this adversity 
be rebuking us just at that point where he has seen 
that we have been unduly proud and boastful ] 

AVe know that in his dealings with nations he 
adapts the judgments which he inflicts, to the moral 
delinquencies of those whom he punishes. How 
strikingly is tliis illustrated in those chastisements 
which he laid on the ancient Egyptians. " The Nile 
was adored in Egypt, and the Nile was turned into 



20 OUR NATIONAL TROUBLES. 

blood. Then it produced frogs, by the touch of whose 
dead bodies the Egyptians were considered as defiled, 
and so, by the laws of their own superstitions, were 
prevented from approaching their altars. Next the 
dust was turned into vermin, one of which alighting 
on a sacrifice, polluted it. Thus was the idolatrous 
worship of Egypt suspended. The Egyptians wor- 
shipped the fly, and the flies were the fourth plague. 
They worshipped cattle also, (the goat was consecrated 
to Pan, the heifer to Isis, and the bull to Osiris,) and 
the fifth plague was on these. The ashes of the sac- 
rifices scattered abroad, were thought to produce bles- 
sings where it lighted, but from the hand of Moses it 
inflicted a curse — even blains, on every man. Again, 
the Egyptians worshipped the elements ; hence tem- 
pests of hail spread destruction over the land, and 
locusts, carried by their god, the wind, destroyed every 
remaining plant. They believed light and darkness 
were independent principles, but they saw a darkness 
which the sun could not disperse." Now, as in his 
dealings with the nations of antiquity, the chastise- 
ments which God laid upon them, were of such a 
nature as were fitted to remind them of the transgres- 
sions for which they were visited, may we not find in 
our national boasting, and in our national pride and 
arrogance, an explanation of our present troubles ] 
A few weeks since, we were saying that this Union 
is too powerful to be broken ; that it could witlistand 



OUR NATIONAL TROUBLES. 21 

all the shocks of the future, as it has sustained those 
of the past ; that all the threatenings of dissolution 
were but the political subterfuges of the designing, or 
the idle gasconade of the ambitious. But we begin to 
see the weakness of what we had judged to be impreg- 
nable. It is our national existence Avhich is threatened. 
Our Union, which we have loved, perhaps too inor- 
dinately, is now in danger of dismemberment, and of 
destruction. 

II. Another cause of our present troubles is found 
in the eager contentions for supremacy, which have 
marked the history of opposing parties. In a free 
government like ours, where the people are called upon 
to elect officers of some kind at intervals of only a few 
months, it is quite impossible to avoid the existence 
of parties. There will be a variety of opinions about 
measures and men, and this will give birth to antago- 
nistic organizations. Washington had been in the 
Presidential chair but a short time when there arose 
an Anti-Federal party, whilst he and his supporters 
were called Federalists. As the former claimed to 
come more directly from the people, they were called 
Democrats. In 1793, France declared war against 
England, and immediately sent a messenger to this 
country, to secure our co-operation. The messenger, 
Mr. Genet, receiving no encouragement from Wash- 
ington, appealed to the people. Many of these, dis- 



/ 



22 OUR NATIONAL TROUBLES. 

sentins: from the President, held that we were bound by 
every consideration of duty and of gratitude, to make 
common cause with the people who had so liberally 
poured out their blood and their treasure in our ser- 
vice. Those imbibing these opinions were generally 
of the Democratic party, and the young organization, 
saining: strens^th from their devotion to the French 
cause, and subsequently from the unpopularity of the 
Alien and Sedition Laws, were able, in a few years, to 
instalJeiferson in the Presidential chair, over his oppo- 
nent, John Adams. Since that day we have had sundry 
political parties, with diverse principles, and under 
various titles. Until recently these parties have had 
their supporters, indiscriminately, in all parts of the 
Union. Latterly, however, a new element has entered 
the political arena, and parties have been determined 
by geographical lines. So long as these organizations 
were not restricted to particular sections, the peace of 
the country was not imperilled; but since each has 
derived its strength from one particular locality, the 
inevitable tendency has been to foment the jealousies 
and ill-blood which now, alas, so fearfully prevail. We 
have just seen a President and Vice President elected 
solely by the votes of Northern States, the vote of 
every Southern State being cast against them. You 
remember how faithfully our own Washington, in his 
Farewell Address, has cautioned us against what has 
now occurred. I could but think, as I yesterday read 



OUR NATIONAL TROUBLES. 23 

that remarkable document, that had he been gifted 
with the faculty of prescience, he could not have de- 
scribed more accurately the troubles which must flow 
from sectional organizations. " In contemplating," 
says Washington, '• the causes which may disturb our 
Union, it occurs to me, as matter of serious concern, 
that any ground should be furnished for characterizing 
parties by geographical distinctions, as Northern and 
Southern, Atlantic and Western, whence designing 
men may excite a belief that there is a real difl'erence 
of local interests and views." Are there not design- 
ing men to-day in the North, as in the South, who, as 
if in fulfilment of this prophecy, are seeking to create 
the impression that the conflict between the two is so 
irrepressible as to preclude all harmony] Washington 
saw that in a Government like ours, there was but 
one condition of peace: that there be no South nor 
North, no East nor West, but our country, our ivIwJe 
country. Departing from this advice, we are plunged 
into our present unhappy embarrassments. 

III. Another cause of our present national adver- 
sity is the misunderstanding which prevails with 
regard to each other's motives and designs. We all 
know how much hostility is excited between indi- 
viduals by a simple misconception. I have known 
persons indulge in the most vehement vituperation 
of each other, and threaten the most serious violence, 



24 OUR NATIONAL TROUBLES. 

when, in fact, there was no real ground of dispute 
between them ; — the whole difficulty originating in 
a misapprehension of each other's intention. What 
is true of individuals in this respect may be true of 
States. One would suppose that with the printing- 
press so constantly at work, with railroads running in 
unbroken connection from the granite hills of New 
England down to the plantations of Alabama, Avith 
the electric wire reporting at our breakfast tables 
the transactions of the preceding day in the capitols 
of the most distant Southern States, and with the 
constant communication of our merchants personally, 
and by letter, that the two sections ought fully to 
understand each other's views and sentiments on 
every important subject. But there is very little true 
conception of the real state of feeling of each to the 
other. With twenty years of my life equally divided 
between the North and the South, and with an exten- 
sive personal acquaintance in both, and at no time 
an indifferent spectator of what was transpiring about 
me, I have often observed how frequently even good 
men in these different portions of the country have 
misjudged each others real character and designs. 
This is owing in a great measure, doubtless, to the 
many agencies which are constantly at work to 
awaken mutual suspicion and distrust. Political 
demagogues who have identified their fortunes with 
different localities, conceiving that their pecuUar 



OUR NATIONAL TROUBLES. 25 

triumphs must be won from fraternal discord, have 
been actively at work to fan into a flame animosities 
already too violent. Sensation newspapers, in both 
sections, pandering to a prurient curiosity, and feed- 
ing a vitiated appetite, now with the obscene details 
of our courts of justice, and again with the exagge- 
rated recital of the angry words and deeds of men of 
heated passion, have been fearfully active in keeping 
alive the baleful excitement. Covetous men, seeking 
to gratify their avarice, have distorted facts, and 
invented falsehoods for the accomplishment of their 
nefarious schemes. And then because it has been 
popular among some classes at the North to indulge 
in maledictions of the South, and in some circles at 
the South to villify the North, lecturers in both sec- 
tions in quest of money and of popularity have 
resorted to this dishonorable expedient to secure their 
object. When residing in Athens, Georgia, I saw a 
statement in the northern papers, that a box contain- 
ing copies of Uncle Tom's Cabin, destined for Alaba- 
ma, had been seized while passing through Athens, 
and burned in the public streets. The story was a 
gross fabrication, but it was extensively circulated in 
the Northern States as an illustration of the barbar- 
ism of slavery. Those of you who are acquainted 
with the railroad communications of the country 
know that xVthens is a terminus of a railroad, and 
that no goods intended for Alabama are ever sent 



26 OUR NATIONAL TROUBLES. 

through that place. At the very time when this 
burning is alleged to have occurred, the book was on 
sale in Athens, and was freely purchased and dis- 
cussed by some of its citizens. They agreed that with 
some things that were true, it contained also much 
that was false. And now living at the North, I some- 
times see in the Southern newspapers, reports in cir- 
culation of transactions here quite as fabulous as the 
story to which I have now referred. The result is 
just what might have been expected from such distor- 
tions and misrepresentations. How could it be other- 
wise '? How long could amicable relations exist even 
between intimate friends were some spy to report 
every expression, which in an unguarded moment the 
one might make against the other — at the same time 
so coloring his statements as to work the greatest 
mischief] Would not such a " whisperer soon sepa- 
rate chief friends '?" Is it surprising, then, that those 
who have been so diligently employed in arraying 
against each other, by every means, foul and fair, the 
different sections of the country, should have suc- 
ceeded at last in involving us in such bitter strife 1 
The distortions and exaggerations, the falsehood and 
the calumny so long uncorrected and unrebuked by a 
wholesome public opinion are bearing their terrible 
fruit : threatening with overthrow the noblest govern- 
ment on earth. Hear Washington on this point. I 
trust it is not yet too late to be profited by the coun- 



OUR NATIONAL TROUBLES. 27 

sels of the first and greatest of the Presidents. " One 
of the expedients of party to acquire influence within 
particular districts is, to misrepresent the opinions and 
aims of other diy rids. You cannot shield yourself too 
much against the jealousies and heart-burnings which 
spring from these misrepresentations. They tend to 
render alien to each other those who ought to be 
bound together by fraternal affection." 

There are, doubtless, other reasons than those 
to which I have referred, which have contributed 
to our unhappy feuds. No enumeration possible, 
within the brief limits of this discourse, would be 
exhaustive of this subject. Allow me, in conclu- 
sion, a few suggestions as to the remedy for our 
existing troubles. In the day of adversity it is 
useful to consider the cure, if there be any, as well 
as the cause of the sorrow by which we are op- 
pressed. 

1. If we have been idolatrous in our love of 
country, we must dislodge this usurper, and invite 
to the shrine Him who claims our hearts. We 
must learn to lean less on our boasted and powerful 
Union, and more on that unseen but almighty 
Hand whence our real strength must be derived. 
During the convention, which, seventy-three years 
ago, sat in this city for the purpose of forming a 
Constitution, the delegates found themselves, at 
one time, so seriously embarrassed that it was 



28 OUR NATIONAL TROUBLES. 

feared they would be compelled to adjourn without 
accomplishing the object for which they had con- 
vened. Various propositions were made by their 
wisest counsellors, but none could harmonize con- 
flicting opinions. After several days debate, and 
when many had begun to despair of adjusting their 
difficulties, a member suggested that they should 
ask direction from above. The suGrgestion was 
favorably received. The first prayer was heard in 
the convention. The members confessed their igno- 
rance, and sought Divine wisdom; light soon broke 
in upon their counsels; and the difficulties, which 
had so recently appeared to be insuperable, vanished. 
Could we, as a people, humble ourselves before the 
Lord, confessing our sins, whether personal, social 
or national, and seek pardon through our Lord Jesus 
Christ, we might hope that the judgments which 
now threaten us would be averted ; that " Peace 
would be once more established within our walls 
and prosperity in our palaces." 

2. As our troubles spring from the prevalence 
of a sectional spirit, we must revive that spirit of 
mutual forbearance and concession on which our 
national organizations were originally founded. Said 
Henry Clay, in one of the most eloquent speeches 
which I ever heard from human lips, " My friends, 
our constitutional history began in a compromise. 
If each section had insisted rigidly and uncondition- 



OUR NATIONAL TROUBLES. 29 

ally on its own cherished views, no government 
could have been formed. It was only when each 
became willing to concede something for the general 
good that a constitution could be adopted. The 
confederation which was born in a spirit of conces- 
sion can only be preserved by a like temper." Men 
of the North must be willing to make sacrifices, 
if need be, to conciUate the men of the South. 
Though they cannot compromise their consciences 
they may forego their preferences. There must be 
that forbearance and amity which are the glory of 
an enlightened and free people. And on the other 
hand such concessions can only be effective where 
they are met by a similar spirit in those to whom 
they are offered. Let the men of the South deal 
with those of the North as with brethren of the 
same blood, and fellow citizens whose interest in 
the republic is common with their own. When 
this sentiment prevails harmony will again return 
and angry criminations give place to cordial fellow 
ship. 

3. We must observe fully and honorably all the 
requisitions of the Constitution of the Union. If, 
as is generally conceded, our present disturbances 
are due in no small measure to a disregard of the 
provisions of that instrument, it is idle to hope for 
peace until its authority is re-established. Men 
have insisted that there was a "higher law"— a law 



30 OUR NATIONAL TROUBLES. 

above the Constitution, and under the impulse of 
a blind passion they have perverted a doctrine, true 
within proper limits, and have trampled on the 
constitution of the country. Complying with those 
stipulations which conflict with no prejudices, they 
have too often evaded or resisted those which mili- 
tated against their cherished views. We boast that 
we have no king, but when we make laws they 
must be king, or discord and strife must follow. 
Hear Washington again: "The basis of our political 
system is to make and to alter our constitutions of 
government. But the constitution which at any 
time exists, until changed by an explicit and au- 
thentic act of the whole people is sacredly obligator?/ 
upon cdl" Let this doctrine be respected by the 
people, and, with the blessing of God, the nation is 
safe. 

As I stand in this pulpit to-day, I am reminded of 
the words of a former pastor of this church, ardently 
attached to his country, and now gone to his reward 
on high. " If,"* said the patriot and the christian, 
to whom I now refer, " our happy country ever bleeds 
by self-inflicted wounds, ambition will drive the 
dagger. Should this great republic of brothers ever 
feel the convulsive throb of discord, and fall distained 
in its own gore, it will be through the workings of 
this baleful passion. It will then have accomplished 

* Sermons of the late Dr. Braiitly, page 224. 



OUR NATrOXAL TROUBLES. 31 

the ruin of the noblest superstructure ever raised on 
earth, will have effected the frustration of the fairest 
hopes that Heaven ever vouchsafed his creature man. 
Of all the blessings conferred on the human race, 
that only of redemption excepted, the Constitu- 
tional UNION OF TUESE StATES IS THE GREATEST.'' 

Well said, sainted man of God ! Though dead, may 
these burning words in which, you still speak to us, 
be graven indelibly on our minds. May the spirit 
which prompted them, breathe in the hearts of all by 
whom you have been known and loved ! I would 
place them side by side with the prayer of the gifted 
statesman, whose requiem old ocean is chaunting to- 
day ; and I would have every American citizen feel 
as did he, in giving utterance to those well known, 
but, ever-thrilling words, " When my eyes shall be 
rned to behold for the last time the sun in heaven, 
lay I not see him shining on the broken and dis- 
honored fragments of a once glorious Union ; on 
States dissevered, discordant, belligerent, — on a land 
rent with civil feuds, or drenched it may be, in fra- 
ternal blood ! Let their last feeble glance rather 
behold the gorgeous ensign of the republic, now 
known and honored throughout the earth, still full, 
high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in 
their original lustre, not a stripe erased or polluted, 
or a single star obscured — bearing for its motto no 
such miserable interrogatory as — What is all this 



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OUR NATIONAL TROUBLES. 



worth \ nor those other words of delusion and folly — 
Liberty first, and Union afterwards — but every where, 
spread all over in characters of living light, blazing 
on all its folds as they float over the sea, and over 
the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, 
that other sentiment, dear to every true American 
heart — Liberty mid Union, now and forever, one 
and inseparable." God grant that the patriotism 
which inspired these noble sentiments, may once 
more pervade our entire country, and to His name, 
Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be all the glory. 



THE END. 



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